CHAMPAIGN – When Illinois volleyball head coach Chris Tamas arrived in Champaign in 2017, Jordyn Poulter was already a well-established Illini star with a national reputation. Part of Tamas’ job was to keep a player with sights set on playing on the international stage.
“When we got Jordyn, I knew she had a higher goal to play for the national team,” Tamas said. “So we really kind of leaned into running fast in Year Two, and we had pieces around her to do it.”
Looking back on the beginning of his head coaching career offered a moment to come full circle to this year’s Illinois team too. The approach that Tamas and his staff deployed in his second year to push their star setter is one they’re now using again in Year Eight to push star outside hitter Raina Terry…